I have my puppy now and see that a buckle collar works very well with her. thank you!
What foods are best
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@Mia:
What made you chose this type of food over another brand?
I chose Merrick when I read the forums here and the thread that rated the foods. Merrick was one of the top ranking foods that I could by locally (a shop about a mile from home carries it). Originally, I tried to find the Timberwolf, but it wasn't local or convenient to buy. Merricks is a bit more expensive, but Tucker loves it. I WAS feeding him Purina Beneful, then I found out the Beneful got a score of around 17/100 while Merrick scored 117/100. Merrick is considered a 5/6 star food. I just want the best for my dog.
The Wilderness Blend seemed, to me, to be the most healthy of the choices although a lot of the canned foods have a brother dry food, like Grammy's Pot Pie.
As I mentioned, I buy a case of the cans when I go shopping and I mix them up. He likes the variety. I use a can about every 4 days when mixing it in with the dry. Actually, he's getting a bit plump according to my vet so I'm going to start replacing the dry with a bit of green beans. Last time I did this, he picked the bean out first. Guess he thinks healthy food is a treat.
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I agree! My breeders fed Eukanuba & I weaned them off of this asap. I even had a dog trainer (BIG MISTAKE!) tell me to feed Purina or some other crap dog food. I knew that she was a fraud right then & there :mad:
Not meaning to start a row here or anything, but That's pretty strong.
I used to feed Purina – only stopped in the last year or so, and my dogs have always lived long lives with no health problems.
My sister currently feeds Purina and her dog is 11 yrs old and still runs and plays like a young dog. No one can believe that Kelly is 11;she hasn't slowed down a step and has never been to the vet except for annual exams, etc.I think Bryan feeds Purina {and he can detail out his research and reasons for it, which he actually did here once}, and he's been breeding exceptional dogs for over 20 yrs.
My niece feeds Canadae and Merricks and her 8 yr old dog is o-l-d.
On the other hand, she has a very "young" 6 yr old.
I have another sister who feeds raw and just had a dog die at age 7 and she said it was because the dog was "old". WTF??? and I don't expect her other dog to live much beyond that.Some dogs do fine -- better than fine, even exceptionally well -- on what many here term "crap food", others do not. Some dogs do great on the "higher quality" foods, others do not.
{Just like some people smoke and drink and eat nothing but sugar and fat and live to be healthy vibrant 90 yr olds, and others have heart attacks at age 40 on a health food diet}
Feeding is a touchy issue, I know, but to call someone a "fraud" because they feed a food you feel is less-than-acceptable is pretty strong and unfair, IMO, of course, but wow.:(
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I think a dog food that scores 17/100, when it comes to nutritional value, can be considered to be a 'not so good' food. My opinion, of course. Dog's don't need pretty food with dyes and fillers and Beneful is mostly dye and filler. I'm sure Purina has other foods that score higher, but Beneful is certainly not one of them.
Tucker had been eating Beneful for 3+ years with his previous owners and he seemed to be fine. I fed it to him for half a year before I found out it wasn't top quality.
/thankfully didn't say Purina was crap.
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As I mentioned, I buy a case of the cans when I go shopping and I mix them up. He likes the variety. I use a can about every 4 days when mixing it in with the dry. Actually, he's getting a bit plump according to my vet so I'm going to start replacing the dry with a bit of green beans. Last time I did this, he picked the bean out first. Guess he thinks healthy food is a treat.
could you mix a little of the can everyday with some dry? it's harder to think of what to feed a dog, then to feed ourselves lol
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@Mia:
could you mix a little of the can everyday with some dry? it's harder to think of what to feed a dog, then to feed ourselves lol
We do that…...Evo with the Merricks.....they love it.
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@Mia:
could you mix a little of the can everyday with some dry? it's harder to think of what to feed a dog, then to feed ourselves lol
That's exactly what I do. Someone else here also mentioned this. I give him 1/2 cup dry and then about two forkfulls of the wet and mix-it-all-up-real-nice-yummy-like!
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We use one can and mix it with the kibble for all seven dogs…..so a couple of spoonfulls per dog and kibble.
They seem to like the Grammies pot pie the best.
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I just ran across Merricks at Pet Club and from what I heard here on the forum decided to try it with my Nutro Dry instead of the Nature's Recipe canned I'd been using. Tyler and Zoey love love love it! I kept them with the same food Basenji Rescue had them on because they were doing ok on it and it didn't have corn/wheat. They have always been chow hounds–but I can tell by the way they keep going back to the kitchen to relick their bowls that the Merricks is more tasty.
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The wet helps to mix in the crushed up pills a couple of them get.
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I think a dog food that scores 17/100, when it comes to nutritional value, can be considered to be a 'not so good' food. My opinion, of course. Dog's don't need pretty food with dyes and fillers and Beneful is mostly dye and filler. I'm sure Purina has other foods that score higher, but Beneful is certainly not one of them.
Tucker had been eating Beneful for 3+ years with his previous owners and he seemed to be fine. I fed it to him for half a year before I found out it wasn't top quality.
/thankfully didn't say Purina was crap.
I bought Senji a small bag of Beneful once. He didn't mind it, but it created a lot of bulk and made him poop about 4 times/day.
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ok I just bought a bag of the puppy food from Merricks. I opened the bag, and I seriously wanted to taste it it smelled so good! We'll see how Mia reacts to it.
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so this morning I tried 1/4C of Merrick's with 3/4C of her old food…Well it didn't take her more than 10 min to gobble the whole thing up! Usually what we did was put a cup of her old food out in the am, and sometimes even by dinner time it would still be full. Needless to say I think Merricks was a good choice for her palate. It's not that pricey either. It's definitly worth seeing her lick her chomps for like 10 minutes afterwards, and the bowl too! lol
I can't wait to see if she leaves us alone at dinner time when I give her the other 1/2 of her daily food. -
Chance of that are slim to none…gggg (leaving you alone during dinner)... especially when the new pup comes. Of course then it will be time to feed each in their crates.... and your girl will not have a chance to "leave" food since you will not be leaving it all day...
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Jazzy's Mom-I totally did not mean to offend…my apologies if I did
At the time most of Purina's ingredients were not what I wanted to feed my pet & that's just in my humble inexperienced opinion.. From what I undersand a lot of the dog food companies have totally revamped their dog foods. Especially considering the dog food crisis we just experienced in this country.I read up on the ingredients & I almost gagged (I'm quite serious about this). Corn was the first ingredient which I had read was a big no no. Followed by all kinds of animal "meal" which to me was not something I wanted to feed my dogs. I won't go into what it is because it still makes me nauseous to this day.
The trainer told me it was designed by Vets & contained the utmost nutritional value. I wondered if she had ever read the label? I wondered if she even knew what animal meal was?? I questioned the manner by which stated her authority on dog nutrition. To me, I felt she was completely wrong and needless to say I did not trust her.
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Jazzy's Mom-I totally did not mean to offend…my apologies if I did
No offense taken. I just thought the wording was strong.
We're good…..:D
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I think I may just leave ours on the Eukanuba the breeder has been feeding him. She raises, shows, etc. tons of adult Bs & so I trust her opinion on the matter. Anyone think Eukanuba is a mistake?
I read the ingrediants & didn't think it looked too bad. Meat was the first thing listed & I have been told you know it's a bad dog food if anything besides meat is listed first.
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I found this list a few weeks ago and thought it was interesting. It lists the majority of dog foods and their top 6 ingredients and percentages of protein, fat, fiber…etc. Some of them just look disgusting. It's at least a good place to start when comparing different foods.
http://www.alternativepetservices.com/Dog_Food_Ingredient_Analysis.xls
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I think I may just leave ours on the Eukanuba the breeder has been feeding him. She raises, shows, etc. tons of adult Bs & so I trust her opinion on the matter. Anyone think Eukanuba is a mistake?
I read the ingrediants & didn't think it looked too bad. Meat was the first thing listed & I have been told you know it's a bad dog food if anything besides meat is listed first.
My only problem with Euk is the corn and beet pulp.. I think that you can get better food for the same price. And I used to always use Euk… on my kids, both show and performance dogs and expecting Moms... and pups.... but not any more, of course I do have one that is allergic to corn period....
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I found this list a few weeks ago and thought it was interesting. It lists the majority of dog foods and their top 6 ingredients and percentages of protein, fat, fiber…etc. Some of them just look disgusting. It's at least a good place to start when comparing different foods.
http://www.alternativepetservices.com/Dog_Food_Ingredient_Analysis.xls
wow that's a great list…and Nina it lists chicken by-product as the second ingredient in Euk...to my knowledge by products of any meat are a no no for a dog.
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@Mia:
wow that's a great list…and Nina it lists chicken by-product as the second ingredient in Euk...to my knowledge by products of any meant are a no no for a dog.
Yea I want to avoid by-products. On the bag I bought though I didn't see that listed. The list given in the previous post actually doesn't have the Euk puppy food listed, only regular & adult.
I think choosing a food is the most complicated part of becoming a pet parent!!! :p
